President Maduro’s assassination was discussed at the White House in the presence of Guaidó, Borges and Vecchio. Mauricio Claver-Carone was part of the plan similar to the planned assassination of Haitian President using Colombian mercenaries. However, in Venezuela, it failed.

On February 5, 2020, Trump received Juan Guaidó, Julio Borges and Carlos Vecchio at the White House to discuss the invasion of Venezuela and the assassination of President Maduro.

There were two meetings; in the first one, Trump asked Guaidó directly, “What if the U.S. military went down there and got rid of Maduro?” Guaidó replied, “Of course we would always welcome U.S. assistance.”

However, Guaidó also said that Venezuelans in Colombia wanted to “take back the country themselves”. Defense Secretary Esper thought he understood that Guaidó was asking for help for an invasion with mercenaries coming from Colombia, but he misunderstood.

Esper asked Guaidó: “would your people really be willing to organize, train, and fight?” After beating around the bush, Guaidó: “yes, they would”.

For Esper, the answer was weak and “didn’t sound reassuring”. They moved on to a second meeting.

Trump’s National Security Advisor, Robert O’Brien, continued to evaluate direct military actions by the U.S. during the second meeting and Guaidó, Borges and Vecchio accepted the ideas. Esper again pressed Guaidó with the notion of invading from Colombia.